Graduate student Steven Cole, supervised by Dr. Ivy L. Pike, will examine the causes and consequences of income inequality in rural Zambia. The research will focus on a population of maize growers in rural Eastern Province, Zambia, where differential access to farming inputs impacts a household's food security and income level. Research that links social inequalities and patterns of biological variation is increasingly common in bio-cultural anthropology. However, much of this research privileges political-economic contexts without considering how they are individually mediated. Using health as a test case, Cole will examine the role of psychosocial stress in explaining the variable individual consequences of income inequality.
The researcher will carry out twelve months of field research using a mixed-methods approach. He will randomly select three study villages and gather basic population data to create a sampling frame to allow him to select a random sample of 60 households. He will survey the health status of household members twice over the course of the study (to capture seasonal variability), gathering anthropometric, perceived health, perceived stress, income, and social cohesion data. The information on household income also will be used to determine each village's Gini coefficient (to assess income distribution), another measure of variable perceived stress. He will conduct semi-structured interviews with villagers on agricultural policies, labor practices, inter-household labor transfers, and emotional responses to the widening of the income gap. These data will be analyzed statistically to elucidate some of the causes and consequences of income inequality in rural Zambia.
The research is innovative because it will be one of the first studies to employ intensive anthropological research methods to test the dynamic relationship between income inequality and individual-level consequences in a developing country context. The research will contribute to improved policy to improve overall health, both physical and mental, in rural areas in developing countries. The research will also contribute to the education of a social scientist.
